Marion Bartoli

Marion Bartoli at the 2005 JP Morgan Chase Open in Carson, CA.
Country	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Date of birth	October 2 1984 (1984--) (age 23)
Place of birth	Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne, France
Height	m ()
Weight	58 kg (128 lb)
Turned Pro	February 2000
Plays	Right (two-handed both sides)
Career Prize Money	$2,227,169
Singles
Career record:	241-154
Career titles:	3 WTA, 6 ITF titles
Highest ranking:	No. 9 (October 22 2007)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2nd (2004-2007)
French Open	4th (2007)
Wimbledon	F (2007)
U.S. Open	4th (2007)
Doubles
Career record:	117-82
Career titles:	3 WTA, 1 ITF titles
Highest ranking:	No. 15 (July 5 2004)
Infobox last updated on: 26 July, 2007.

Marion Bartoli (born October 2, 1984) is a French professional tennis player. She has won three WTA titles. She is a 2007 Wimbledon Championships finalist. She has so far reached the top ten in the world, and as of October 15 2007, is the number one female French player.

Playing style

Bartoli is known for her unorthodox and intense style of play. She uses two hands on both the forehand and the backhand, and is generally classed as an aggressive and hard-hitting player. She developed her two-handed style on the advice of her father. He had seen the classic 1992 French Open final in which Monica Seles defeated Steffi Graf, and immediately was inspired to teach the technique to his daughter.

Marion also had trouble with her forehand at the time, so when she made the switch to two hands, it greatly improved. She uses her double-fisted strokes to create sharp angles to open up the court and prefers to take the ball early on groundstrokes and especially returns of serve, usually standing close to the baseline or even inside it during rallies. Her style of play can be most closely compared to that of Seles, who had a strong influence on Bartoli as a young player, though unlike Seles, Bartoli serves right handed. Bartoli is also known for her unusual serve, in which she uses her wrist to generate speed. Also she usually does not bounce the ball before she serves.

Tennis career

2001

Marion started entering tournaments regularly at the age of 16. After a few aborted starts in 1999 and 2000 and getting to the last 16 of the Australian Open Juniors in 2001 she attacked the ITF $10,000 clay events in the spring. Winning two tournaments back to back in May (in Hatfield and Torino) ensured the French Open gave her a wildcard into her first grand slam. Purely a learning experience she lost to Catalina Castaño, who was ranked just outside the top 100. Entering the Juniors of the same event proved a harder experience for Bartoli who was in tears on court being dumped out 6-0, 6-1 by Myriam Casanova after losing the first 11 games of the match. The rest of the year comprised of entering bigger tournaments and consistently improving her ranking. The major highlight though was winning the junior US Open title, beating Ashley Harkleroad 6-2, 6-3 in the semi final before coming from behind to edge out Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. This victory prompted her father (Dr. Walter Bartoli) to give up his job and coach her full time. By the year's end she was the number three ranked junior player in the world and she had risen to 304 in the WTA rankings with a record of 28-8 in non-juniors competition with 21-4 coming on clay, 5-2 on hard courts, 1-1 on grass and 1-1 on carpet.

2002

On the back of her US Open Junior win Marion received a wildcard into the Australian Open. She lost a very tight three set match to Tina Pisnik 6-3, 4-6, 9-7. In the juniors she was expected to repeat the success of the US Open but fell in the last 16. Following her first round exit at the French Open in three sets to Ai Sugiyama (and losing to Ashley Harkleroad in the last 16 of the final juniors grand slam she would enter) her form heading into the qualifying of the US Open was mixed (in her four tournaments in July and August her record was 3-4). Nevertheless she beat three players ranked higher than her to qualify for a Grand Slam on merit for the first time.

In the first round the 231st best player in the world dispatched the former champion and 25th seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-3, 6-1. It was Marion's first win over a player in the top 100 and by far the most important victory of her career. She followed that win by beating Paraguayan Rossana de los Rios (then ranked 70th in the world) in three sets before finally succumbing in the third round to another former champion, the 4th seed Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-1. Those results catapulted Bartoli over 100 places higher in the WTA rankings which she would build on to finish the year.

Her record for 2002 was 34-17 with 27-10 on hard courts and 7-7 on clay. She finished the year ranked 104 by the WTA.

2003

Marion began 2003 by immediately establishing herself as a top 100 player. She achieved this in her second tournament of the year, beating 4 top 100 players on her way through qualifying to the semi finals of Canberra. For the first time she earned her place in a Grand Slam (the Australian Open) through her ranking but she drew the 11th seed Magdalena Maleeva in the first round and lost in straight sets. As a result of her increased ranking and improving results she received a wildcard to her first tier II WTA event in Paris but she lost in the first round to Maja Matevzic. 5 weeks later she qualified for her first Tier 1 event at Indian Wells before losing in straight sets to number 8 seed Chanda Rubin in the second round proper. She repeated the trick a fortnight later by qualifying in Miami but this time made it to her first quarter final of a WTA tour event after Davenport retired in their 4th round match due to an injured hamstring.^[1]

Now a regular at WTA tour events she had an indifferent clay court season with a 7-6 record heading into the French Open. She recorded her first win there in 3 attempts against her US Open opponent from the previous year de los Rios. She lost to number 7 seed Jennifer Capriati 6-3, 6-0 in the second round. Marion then had her first experiences on grass in 2 years getting to the 3rd round in Birmingham and losing to compatriot Amélie Mauresmo in 's-Hertogenbosch but the now 52 ranked Bartoli had the misfortune at her first Wimbledon to draw the number 9 seed, Slovak Daniela Hantuchová in the first round. She lost 6-4, 6-1.

The highlight of her American hard court season was beating her first top 20 player, Meghann Shaughnessy (then ranked 18th) in three sets on her way to the third round of the tournament in San Diego. That represented her best result of the summer as she drew Hantuchova again in the first round of the US Open and again only took 5 games off the Slovak, this time losing 6-3, 6-2. It was during this period that Marion started to really raise her doubles ranking. On the back of two second round performances at the French Open and Wimbledon Bartoli got to the semi finals of five successive tournaments (including the US Open, losing alongside Myriam Casanova to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Martina Navrátilová in the semi final), getting to the final at the fifth attempt in Linz with Silvia Farina Elia

By the end of 2003 Marion was ranked 57th in the WTA world rankings and her record for the year stood at 35-26. Her hard court record was 24-15, clay 8-6, Grass 1-3 and Carpet 2-2. Her record against top 10 players was 0-8.

2004

Bartoli began 2004 by getting to her first WTA semi final in the season-opener in Auckland. She got to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time, losing to number 22 seed Patty Schnyder in three sets. Marion reached another semi final in Hydrabad which briefly made her a top 50 player for the first time, but simultaneously she refound her doubles form of late 2003. Partnering compatriot Émilie Loit, they reached the semi finals of Acapulco, the quarter finals of Indian Wells and then Marion won her first WTA tour doubles title in Casablanca.

After a forgettable singles clay court season (culminating in her second loss to Sugiyama at her native grand slam event) she rose back up the rankings by reaching the 3rd round of Wimbledon (losing to Sugiyama for the second successive slam). She also got to the quarter finals of Wimbledon in the doubles, partnering Loit for the second successive grand slam (they had failed to get beyond the second round of the French Open). Bartoli got to her third singles semi final of the year in Cincinnati before pulling out of her match with Davenport with a blister on her right hand. She reached the second round of the US Open despite being drawn against number 32 seed Meghann Shaughnessy in the first round. She lost to Russian Vera Douchevina in three sets in the second round.

In the absence of Amélie Mauresmo (with a groin injury) and Mary Pierce (with a shoulder problem) Marion received her debut Fed Cup call-up for France's semi finals against Spain. She was teamed with Loit again and helped complete a 5-0 whitewash of the Spanish team. In the final against Russia Svetlana Kuznetsova had lost both of her matches and Anastasia Myskina had won both of hers, making Bartoli & Loit's doubles match against Myskina & Vera Zvonareva the decisive rubber. The Russian pair won the first set on a tie break then the second set 7-5 handing the Fed Cup to Russia for the first time. As a result, her team leader Guy Forget was resigned and she did not choose by her new team leader Georges Goven to play next year (2005) of the same tournament with Loit.

She ended 2004 ranked 41st having gone 30-24 over the year. Her hard court record was 23-13, with clay going 4-7, grass 3-3 and carpet 0-1.

2005

After a promising start (semi finals in Aukland and quarter finals in Canberra), which took her to 32nd in the world and winning the second doubles tournament of her career in Pattaya City, injury disrupted the second quarter of 2005 for Marion. The only match she played in the clay court season was her straight sets first round loss to Shahar Pe'er at the French Open (where she was seeded for the first time, 28th). Her quarter-final run at Eastbourne (where she had to retire hurt) led her to a career-high ranking of 27 entering Wimbledon. She lost to Jill Craybas in the second round 6-1, 6-4. Highlights of the year were reaching the third round of the US Open for the second time (losing to Sania Mirza) and making her second WTA semi final of the year (and fifth of her career) in Québec.

Her end of season stats were 35-26, albeit padded by a victory in a satellite tournament in Doha at the end of the year. She went 30-21 on hard courts, 0-1 on clay, 3-3 on grass and 2-1 on carpet. She was now number 40 in WTA rankings.

2006

In January 2006, Bartoli at 21 years of age won her first senior title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, beating Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-2 in the final. The tournament marked the first time she had beaten a top 10 player when Nadia Petrova retired in the 3rd set of their semi final with a leg injury. She then exited the first three grand slam events of the year at the second round stage (losing to Roberta Vinci in Australia, upcoming Serb Jelena Janković at the French Open and Karolina Šprem at Wimbledon - all in three sets), but she won her third career doubles title by capturing the ECM Prague Open with Shahar Pe'er in May.

The American hard court season was very productive for Marion, getting to the third round (and in some cases that meant the quarter finals) of five of the seven tournaments she entered including the U.S. Open where she again lost in the third round, this time to number 7 seed Patty Schnyder. The following week she beat the Swiss player on route to her second final of the year in Bali where she lost to the number 5 player in the world, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In October, Bartoli won her second WTA singles title at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships beating Aiko Nakamura 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. This was the first ever WTA final contested by two players using two-handed strokes on both the forehand and backhand. As a result of winning the title she broke into the top twenty for the first time. In her last event of the season she captured the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, shutting out Olga Poutchkova 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

Marion finished the year number 17 in the world, her record was 45-28, her best on tour so far. That compromised of 37-17 on hard courts, 4-6 on clay, 3-3 on grass and 1-2 on carpet. She was 3-6 against top 10 players.

2007

Marion began 2007 with another 2nd round exit at the Australian Open, this time falling to Victoria Azarenka in straight sets. Her best result on hard courts was reaching the last 16 of Indian Wells but Bartoli began to find her form during the claycourt season, which had previously not been a successful surface for her. She reached the final of the ECM Prague Open in May, losing to Akiko Morigami. Bartoli was hindered by a hip injury during the latter stages of the Prague tournament and withdrew from the Rome Masters as a result. After a semi final run in Strasbourg was ended by Amélie Mauresmo, Marion reached her first career Grand Slam fourth round at the French Open, defeating Elena Dementieva in the third round. She was knocked out by the player at the top of the Race (the calendar year rankings) Jelena Janković 6-1, 6-1.

Her form continued into the grass court season, beating Daniela Hantuchová in three sets en route to a semi final encounter with Maria Sharapova in Birmingham, which she lost in straight sets. A week later in Eastbourne she got to her second successive semi final, dispatching Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-0 in the quarter final before losing 6-1, 6-3 to world number 1 Justine Henin.

At the 2007 Wimbledon Championships Marion made her long-awaited Grand Slam breakthrough by advancing to her first ever Grand Slam final. Her most notable win in the early rounds was her victory over No. 3 seed Jelena Janković in the fourth round, the second-biggest win of her career to date. She came from a set down and fought several rain delays to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Bartoli followed this by beating Michaëlla Krajicek 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals in another delayed match. After losing the first set Marion told BBC reporters she had an hour's nap in the 90 minute rain break (she claims she needs 10 hours sleep per night) and came back refreshed to take the final two sets and book a place in the semi final with her Eastbourne conqueror Henin. Bartoli advanced to the finals after coming from behind to stun No. 1 seed Henin 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. It was the biggest victory of her career to date and reported as "one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history".^[2] Due to their respective rankings and grand slam records, coupled with the Belgian's recent win over Serena Williams in the quarter finals as well as their result only two weeks before at Eastbourne, bookmakers had Henin at 1/33 to win and Marion was a 10-1 outside shot. Marion claimed afterwards the reason for her turnaround in the match was seeing Pierce Brosnan in the royal box and was determined not to play badly in front of one of her favourite actors. In her immediate post match interview she asked the former James Bond star if he could come back for the final the next day to see her again. However, the following day with Brosnan unable to attend due to a wedding (he had sent flowers and a letter to Marion in the lockerroom) Bartoli was defeated in the final, losing to three-time former champion Venus Williams 6-4 6-1. Her father (and coach) Walter, who was sitting in the player's box behind Williams' father Richard, broke down and cried when she acknowledged him in her post-match remarks as being responsible for her achievements.

As a result of her Wimbledon performance, she rose to a career high of 11th in the WTA rankings and Race. She also picked up £350,000 (US $712,000) for her run to the final which constitutes just under a third of her career earnings so far. The French Federation wanted her to represent her country for the first time in two and a half years in their semi-final of the Fed Cup against Italy, but a combination of tiredness post-Wimbledon added to the fact that her father would not be allowed to accompany her led to Marion not participating.

Her first foray into the U.S. Open Series ended in a surprise defeat at Stanford. Having been seeded 2nd Marion received a bye in the first round. In the second round she faced American wildcard Lilia Osterloh and lost 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Marion suffered a leg injury in the first set which hindered her movement, she cited overtiredness and illness as contributing factors to the loss. In San Diego, Marion edged past Aiko Nakamura 7-6⁴, 6-1 after a first round bye, but lost to Elena Dementieva in the third round 6-4, 7-5. This loss was perhaps seen as surprising because Marion had won their last two meetings, including losing just one game at Eastbourne. Despite the loss Marion claimed that her level of play was fine, however she lost her next match in Los Angeles to an in-form Maria Kirilenko 7-6, 6-3 after receiving a bye to the second round.

Marion picked up her form in Toronto, winning consecutive matches for the first time since Wimbledon. She beat Maria Kirilenko and Dinara Safina but retired in her quarterfinal match against Yan Zi when trailing 6-2, 3-0. At New Haven, she beat Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-0, 6-4 before losing to Elena Dementieva once again 6-4, 6-2.

At the U.S. Open she reached the fourth round for the first time by defeating world No. 25 Lucie Šafářová in the third round. In the fourth round she faced Serena Williams. She came into the match determined to win, but a dominant serve led Serena to win 6-3, 6-4.

After her solid U.S. Open performance, Marion began her indoor season at a small tournament in Kolkata, India. She was the number one seed but suffered a shock loss to Vania King, who immediately lost in the next round. She then played at the Fortis Championships in Luxembourg, where she reached her first semifinal since her Wimbledon run by beating defending champion Alyona Bondarenko and number one seed Anna Chakvetadze for her third top ten win of the year. She then suffered a surprising first round loss at Stuttgart to Agnieszka Radwańska.

Marion then moved to the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, the first Tier I of the indoor season. She was the fifth seed at this event and in the first round beat Alyona Bondarenko for the second time in three weeks 6-2, 7-5. However, she lost in the next round to home favourite Vera Dushevina 2-6, 6-0, 6-4. She then moved on to another Tier I event in Zürich, and has reached the quarterfinals with wins over Peng Shuai and Michaëlla Krajicek. She next faces Tatiana Golovin.

Her record for the year stands at 42-28, with 14-13 on hard courts, 14-7 on clay, 12-3 on grass and 2-5 on carpet. Her record against top 10 players so far is 3-7.

Grand Slam singles finals

Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2007	Wimbledon	Venus Williams	6-4, 6-1

WTA and ITF finals (19)

Titles (12)

Legend

Grand Slam (0)

WTA Championships (0)

Tier I (0)

Tier II (0)

Tier III (2)

Tier IV (1)

ITF Tour (6)

Singles (9)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	6 May 2001	ITF / Hatfield, Great Britain	Clay	Maki Arai	6-0 6-2
2.	20 May 2001	ITF / Torino, Italy	Clay	Stephanie Rizzi	6-1 6-1
3.	19 August 2001	ITF / Koksijde, Belgium	Clay	Arantxa Parra Santonja	6-2 6-1
4.	24 February 2002	ITF / Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Maureen Drake	6-2 6-3
5.	3 November 2002	ITF / Poitiers, France	Hard	Seda Noorlander	6-1 6-0
6.	18 December 2005	ITF / Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Kaia Kanepi	6-2 6-0
7.	7 January 2006	ASB Classic, Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Vera Zvonareva	6-2 6-2
8.	8 October 2006	Japan Open Tennis Championships, Tokyo	Hard	Aiko Nakamura	2-6 6-2 6-2
9.	5 November, 2006	Bell Challenge, Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Olga Poutchkova	6-0 6-0

Doubles (3)

No	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	11 April 2004	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Emilie Loit, (France)	Els Callens / Katarina Srebotnik	6-4 6-2
2.	6 February 2005	Pattaya Women's Open, Thailand	Hard	Anna-Lena Groenefeld, (Germany)	Marta Domachowska / Silvija Talaja	6-3 6-2
3.	May 14 2006	ECM Prague Open, Czech Republic	Clay	Shahar Peer, (Israel)	Ashley Harkleroad / Bethanie Mattek	6-4 6-4

Runner-ups (7)

Singles runner-ups (3)

• 2006 - Wismilak International, Bali, Indonesia (Lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-2)
• 2007 - ECM Prague Open, Czech Republic (Lost to Akiko Morigami 6-1, 6-3)
• 2007 - Wimbledon 2007 (Lost to Venus Williams 6-4 6-1)

Doubles runner-ups (4)

• 2003 - Open Gaz de France, with Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro (Lost to Barbara Schett and Patty Schnyder 2-6, 6-2, 7-6⁵)
• 2003 - Generali Ladies Linz, with Silvia Farina Elia (Lost to Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama 6-1, 7-6⁶)
• 2004 - Tashkent Open, with Mara Santangelo (Lost to Adriana Serra Zanetti and Antonella Serra Zanetti 1-6, 6-3, 6-4)
• 2007 - Medibank International, with Meilen Tu (Lost to Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 ²)

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the recent U.S. Open in New York City, which ends on September 9, 2007.

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career W/L
Grand Slams
Australian Open	A	A	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	2R	4-6
French Open	A	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R	2R	4R	5-7
Wimbledon	A	A	A	1R	3R	2R	2R	F	10-5
U.S. Open	A	A	3R	1R	2R	3R	3R	4R	10-6
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	0-1	2-3	1-4	4-4	4-4	5-4	13-4	29-24
WTA Tier I tournaments
Tokyo	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	1R	1-2
Indian Wells	A	A	A	2R	1R	2R	3R	4R	7-5
Miami	A	A	A	QF	A	2R	3R	3R	9-4
Charleston	A	A	A	1R	A	A	3R	2R	3-3
Berlin	A	A	A	Q1	Q2	A	A	A	1-2
Rome	A	A	A	A	Q2	A	A	A	0-0
San Diego1	A	A	A	3R	3R	1R	1R	3R	7-5
Montreal/Toronto	A	A	A	2R	A	2R	3R	QF	6-4
Moscow	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	1-1
Zurich	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	QF	2-2
Career Statistics
Tournaments played	0	2	6	26	27	25	31	18*
Finals reached	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2*
Tournaments won	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0*
Year End Ranking	1120	345	106	57	41	40	17

¹ The San Diego tournament achieved Tier I status only in 2004.

* Up to and including Wimbledon.

References

1. ^ rte.ie Contrasting fortunes for Williams sisters
2. ^ Bartoli stuns Henin to reach final

External links

• Official Site (in French)
• http://www.marion-bartoli.net (Linked to by official site)
• Marion Bartoli profile on the WTA Tour's official website

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